Master Class: Renewable Energy Project Finance

Presented by the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale:

How do private equity investors think about renewable energy and clean technology? Does everyone rely upon investment bankers and other intermediaries for deal flow, looking for that needle in a haystack? Or are there sure-fire techniques for originating proprietary investment ideas and opportunities?

In this Master Class, Daniel Gross will use case studies of actual investments in the solar value chain to illustrate hypothesis-driven investment as one approach to private equity. He will provide insight into the kinds of data analysis and primary research that are necessary for developing conviction about how a market is likely to unfold in the future and how to translate that conviction into successful investment opportunities that are actionable today.

Following the lecture, you will be given information about the current market conditions for solar and then break into small teams so that you may use this approach to develop your own investment hypotheses. Teams will share their ideas as we wrap-up the discussion and move on to cocktails.

When: Tuesday November 29, 2016, 6:30– 9:00pm Where: Yale Club New York, 50 Vanderbilt Ave, New York, NY 10017 Cost: Free

Speakers

• Daniel Gross '98 MBA

  Lecturer at Yale University
  

  Daniel Gross is a private equity and infrastructure investor focused upon renewable energy and clean technology. He has served as a Managing Director at both Pegasus Capital Advisors and Oaktree Capital Management. Mr. Gross was one of the founding Partners of Hudson Clean Energy, a private equity firm with over $1 billion in assets under management. On Hudson's behalf, he served on the board of directors of Silicor Materials, Recurrent Energy and Solopower. Prior to Hudson, Mr. Gross was in the U.S. alternative energy investment group at Goldman Sachs, where he headed efforts to invest in photovoltaic (PV) solar, including investments in First Solar and SunEdison, for which he served on the board of directors. Prior to Goldman, Mr. Gross worked in GE Capital's Energy Financial Services unit where he founded the renewable energy investment business and closed over $1 billion of principal investments in energy-sector loans, leases, mezzanine, common/preferred equity and tax-driven partnerships. Mr. Gross' professional contributions to the field of renewable energy finance include structuring and leading the first U.S. project financing of a rooftop PV solar installation, as well as the tax equity financing for the first and only renewable partnership flip structure to receive a Private Letter Ruling from the IRS, which became the basis of the IRS's subsequent issuance of the partnership flip Safe Harbor Rules. Mr. Gross is a Fulbright Scholar and holds a Masters in Environmental Management, M.B.A. and B.A. (Phi Beta Kappa) from Yale University. He is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and also holds an appointment as a Lecturer at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies where he teaches a course on Renewable Energy Project Finance.